Improvement in sap-bucket covers



DANIEL SMITH & ELBRIDGE SMITH. Improvement in Sap Bucket Cevers.

r Patented 0m. 17 1671. N0 ZSheeis -Sheet 1.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIGE.

DANIEL SMITH, OF GILSUM, AND ELBRIDGE SMITH, OF KEENE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

IMPROVEMENT IN SAP-BUCKET COVERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 119,952, dated October 17, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, DANIEL SMITH, of Gilsum, in the county of Cheshire and State of New Hampshire, and ELBRIDGE SMITH, of Keene, in the county of Cheshire and State of New Hampshire, have invented an Improvement in Sap- Bucket (lovers, of which the following is a full and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing making part of this specification.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the cover when fixed on the spout and hanging over the bucket. Fig. 2 is a side elevation, showing a section of a tree, the bucket hung in the usual Way, the spout, and the cover attached to the spout. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the cover. Fig. 4. is a perspective view of the wire-fastening. Figs. Sand 6 show the construction of the iron which helps to hold the wire-fastening on the spout. Fig. 7 shows another form of the wire-fastening.

In making sugar from the sap of trees the buckets are usually exposed to the rain, which not only fills up the buckets, necessitating extra expense in subsequent evaporation, but also brings down from the branches of the trees many impurities into the buckets, so that the sugar made from sap so gathered is materially injured. The exposure of the buckets to the sun also injures the sap. To avoid such liabilities to the deterioration of the sap is the object of our in vention, which consists in an improved mode of attaching a cover or lid to the spout above the bucket, which cover shall effectually exclude rain and sunshine fiom the bucket, while it will not interfere with the removal of one bucket and replacing another.

In the drawing, A is the cover, which may be made of thin wood, of metal, or other suitable material, and is attached to the spout by a hooked or detaching hinge. If the cover is made of wood, as represented in the drawing, it may be strengthened by a cleat, B, on the upper part, and by a thin piece of hard wood inserted across the grain of the rest of the cover, as shown at G,

on the lower part. In the upper or back part of the cover are grooves or notches across the edge and extending over on the top to staples or eyes I over these grooves or notches, these being marked K in the drawing. The staples or eyes may be sunk to the level of the cleat. The covers thus made may be packed so as to occupy very little space when not in use. The staples or eyes form part of the hinge into which the bent ends F of the wire-fastening D are inserted, thereby completing the hinge. The wire-fastening D is bent so as to surround or clasp the spout, being held in place by the iron or metallic plate G, and by the cam or eccentric H. The wire then passes back and over the cover in the grooves K, and hooks into the staples or eyes F, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

This construction affords great facility in attaching the wire to the covers when both are held in the hand; but when the wire is put on the spout the cover cannot be unhinged. The shape of the plate G, by the corners a being bent downward, prevents movement of the cover sidewise. Figs. 5 and 6 show its construction. The Wire D may be bent so as itself to form a spring to clasp the spout, as shown in Fig. 7 5 or it may be attached permanently to the spout and the cover hooked on before the spout is driven into the tree.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The wire-fasteningD, clasping or encircling the spout, on which-it is held by a cam, H, or by the elasticity of the wire, and hooking into the cover by the bent extremities F F, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. The cover A and the Wire D, when used together as and for the purpose described.

DANIEL SMITH. ELBRIDGE SMIT I.

Witnesses HOSEA FOSTER, 

